Facebook announced Friday it has partnered with anonymity network Tor to allow a more private and secure way to connect to the social networking site without having to give away crucial identifying information.

In a blogpost announcing the move, the social networking behemoth said it is hosting a hidden website that is only accessible through the anonymizing Tor software.

Like Us on Facebook

Facebook software engineer Alec Muffett said, the new service will allow Tor users to use the site without losing the "cryptographic protections provided by the Tor cloud."

Tor, short for The Onion Router, secures privacy in two ways: by rerouting connections through various servers across the world and by hiding all traces of the user's traffic, including user identity, physical location, online activities and other potentially compromising data.

In the past, Tor users had a hard time accessing Facebook because the site flags Tor-connected accounts as hacked given the way they appear as coming from several different locations.  

The open source network was created in 2002 as a means to allow people to access the web anonymously and has been especially beneficial for people from countries like China and Iran where governments have imposed restricted Internet access.

While Tor may have created a name for hosting illegal and shady sites often used for online crimes and mostly illicit activities, it has also evolved into a useful platform for anti-government demonstrators and dissidents to pass information undetected, according to International Business Times.

However, Facebook has clarified any speculation that people using the Tor software will be able to remain under the site's radar.

Facebook says the basic Tor protocol is maintained: that it will protect the connection and skew the location of the person, but will not make the user completely anonymous.

As privacy and security researcher, Runa Sandvik explained, "You get around the censorship and local adversarial surveillance, and it adds another layer of security on top of your connection."

The new Tor address-https://facebookcorewwwi.onion/-has been described as an experimental measure and is, at best, a "flaky" venture, wrote Muffet in the blog announcing the service.

Sandvik, who has worked with Tor and has been consulted by Facebook for the project, said the new service is a "very positive step for anyone who wants to access Facebook in a secure way."

TagsTor, anonymous Facebook access